Calif. Senate Leader Poses Questions On NBA Kings Arena Plan

Questions Need To Be Answered Before
Kings' Land-Swap Deal Is Complete

California state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg in a letter yesterday to Cal Expo and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said that he "wants more questions answered before the state will consider legislation to allow the sale of Cal Expo as part of a proposal to build a new arena for the Kings," according to Tony Bizjak of the SACRAMENTO BEE. Developers had been "pressing for legislation this month to pave the way for a complicated deal that would move the State Fair to the Arco Arena site, the Kings' current home, and finance a new arena near the downtown rail depot." According to the land-swap plan proposed this year by Sacramento developer Gerry Kamilos and backed by the NBA, much of the financing "would come from the sale and private development of the Cal Expo site." Steinberg "stepped in Monday to say the time is not right for a bill." But in a letter addressed to Kamilos and the NBA, he "held out the possibility that a bill could still be considered at the end of the year." Steinberg wrote that before the state "would consider being a funding partner, it would need answers to several questions." The questions include: whether the Cal Expo board "has determined that it is in the state's interest to relocate the fair; whether the cost estimates associated with a move, including construction and operations costs, are reliable;" and "what statute changes are needed for Cal Expo officials to be full participants in the plan and its implementation" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 8/24).

BANNER DAY: In Sacramento, Kelly Johnson noted the Kings today will unveil "banners of reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans and the NBA's Rookie of the Month for July, DeMarcus Cousins," that will be hung outside of Arco Arena. Each banner measures 35 feet tall by 118 feet wide (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/23).